Absent-mindedness

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“I AM LOSING it, son…” The other day I was communicating to my boy on the importance of remembering people’s names! Would you believe it I could hardly say out the names of 90 percent of the people or friends I recognised who I bumped into in the hospital…😦

My Fifth-former junior got sick just after he was inaugurated as the Head Prefect in his school last Tuesday. So I took him to see the doctor that morning. As soon as we walked past the A(H1N1) screening counter at the main entrance, I said my “Salam” to a good old “Haji” male nurse friend of mine (but I forgot his name). A few more steps inside, another “Salam” to an ex-neighbour male nurse “Haji” (whose name I only recalled after a couple of hours!).

While waiting for my son’s number at the registration counter, I simply smiled at one old “Haji” who accompanied one of his grand-daughters (and I thought I knew the girl’s parents). Before my son was called in to see the good and friendly Myanmarese (Burmese) doctor (I forgot to ask for his name, too), I finally got to “Salam” with another ex-colleague whose name I remembered clearly in full, that time!🙂

While seated in front of the Pharmacy, I got into conversation for old time’s sake with yet another old acquaintance and the funny thing was I remembered all the guy’s office mates’ names but I completely forgot his own name. Being a ‘diplomatic’ fellow Asian, it’s kinda embarrassing to ask point-blank for his name when I’m supposed to know him so well!😀

So I told my son that I would try (after such incidental ‘meetings’ with people of forgettable names) to look ’em up in the phone directory. Either that or to ask from other common friends for the names of those people which slipped my mind… funny slow way of going about it but that’s how I normally do it to remember their names again.

The fastest way of course is to ask for their phone numbers and type in their exact names right away on the spot without appearing to be rude for being so absent-minded! I knew I should’ve taken up intensive courses in ‘Memory Power’ or something similar… Hehehhehh😛

Wise old men said that we should always avoid from eating ants-infested meals or drinks, head portions of fish or any animal foodstuff because it’s said that such things contribute to poor memory… I wouldn’t know but I know Fish Head Curry is one of my fave dishes!😛

My teenaged son shrugged off my memory-loss issue by bragging that his name is uniquely different from other kids that most of his peers in his own school and students from other schools (especially the girls whose names are all the same, almost, he said) always remember it instantly.

Well lucky him to have been named by me, his memory lapse-prone father!🙂 Reminds me of a fish named Dory, a blue tang suffering from short-term memory loss in ‘Finding Nemo’…😉

P.S. I can’t help but admire His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam for such powerful memory to be able to remember the faces of most of His Majesty’s 400,000-odd subjects (including mine) plus hundreds more during international encounters. And His Majesty could probably memorise hundreds of names (if not thousands), with or without the help of aides and protocol officials.